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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23732629">The Family Tohsaka</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumesvertes/pseuds/plumesvertes'>plumesvertes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fate/Zero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Missing Scenes, Multi, Non-Explicit Sex, approximately canon compliant, the Gil/Enkidu is implied</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:53:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,755</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23732629</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumesvertes/pseuds/plumesvertes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin was their future. Sakura was their shameful past. Tokiomi was the head of the family, and Kirei his tool. Aoi was the heart of the family, now broken. Gilgamesh gleefully took center stage Tohsakas fell apart around him.</p><p>Or: A glimpse into the Tohsaka household centered around its most often ignored member.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Enkidu | False Lancer/Gilgamesh | Archer, Gilgamesh | Archer/Tohsaka Aoi, Kotomine Kirei/Gilgamesh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Family Tohsaka</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There’s a brief reference to a HF spoiler at the end, if anyone still cares about those.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Aoi sat at the kitchen table at night, crying, Gilgamesh came to visit her. </p><p>This wasn’t the first night Aoi had spent like this. Sakura used to wake up in the middle of the night and wander into the kitchen. Both mother and daughter would take refuge there when they couldn’t sleep. Aoi would make Sakura a glass of warm milk, even though she inevitably got full after a few sips. Then Aoi would carry her back to bed, careful not to wake Rin. </p><p>For a moment, Aoi forgot herself, Sakura’s name on her lips. She lifted her head out of her hands only to be met with the sight of Gilgamesh. Tears welled in Aoi’s eyes, but she didn’t indulge them. The wife of a magus must not cry. </p><p>Gilgamesh didn’t acknowledge her. Aoi didn’t know if this was due to compassion or callousness. He rifled through the refrigerator, clattering through bottles and plastic containers, then stuck Kirei’s leftover mapo tofu in the microwave. </p><p>“Wait,” Aoi said, before Gilgamesh could walk off with his food. Her voice was insubstantial and rough with phlegm, but Gilgamesh still turned around. </p><p>“I didn’t know you liked mapo tofu,” she added after a moment. This was an invitation to conversation, and Gilgamesh took it, pulling up a chair to sit opposite his Master’s wife. </p><p>“We all have unexpected tastes, yourself included,” he responded.</p><p>“Please speak frankly, Archer, if you wish to criticize me.”</p><p>“Ha! Who said anything about criticism? It is not a bad thing to have unusual inclinations.” He took a bite of his mapo tofu.</p><p>“And what inclinations of your own do you consider unusual?”</p><p>“I would miss out on the best joys the world has to offer if I restricted myself to the common pleasures of mongrels,” said Gilgamesh, evasive as always.</p><p>“So you think of us as mongrels?” Aoi meant to sound offended, but the words rolled off her tongue powerlessly. </p><p>“You must have thought the same, when you left your old world to marry into one of the most powerful mage families.” </p><p>“Don’t presume to know anything about me and my husband.” Her voice was sharper now. “We married for love. I’ve read your legend; you wouldn’t understand.” </p><p>“Is love giving your child away to someone who would violate her and discard her life? Is love putting a war before your family? If you truly believe this, it is you who does not understand.” Gilgamesh smiled at the anguish in Aoi’s expression. Sometime soon, Gilgamesh would smile in a similar way, although it wouldn’t be anguish he was taking joy in. His lips would still be tinted red, but this time from wine. </p><p>Aoi couldn’t bear to parrot her husband’s excuses of legacy and developing each of their daughters’ potential. They were all hollow words, cruelty hiding behind tradition, and Gilgamesh would see right through her. “I’m not the one who is mistaken,” she whispered, angry and mournful, and it was clear to both of them that she was not referring to Gilgamesh.</p><p>“Your husband is a fool who sees others only as a means to prop up his own ego. He leads a lonely life, surrounded by his pawns, and it will be his downfall.” Gilgamesh put his arm around Aoi, and she let him, neither leaning into the touch nor turning away from it. She was silent for several minutes until he slunk away into the night. If he noticed the tears tracing twin paths from her eyes onto his shirt, he didn’t say anything. Whether he acted out of compassion or callousness, Aoi didn’t know. She didn’t care. It didn’t matter.</p><p>They met at the kitchen table for the next three nights. Aoi could’ve fallen asleep if she tried, but she had nightmares about a dark room echoing with chitters, and she couldn’t bear the thought that those barely audible whimpers were Sakura’s. Waking up to her husband’s sleeping form was no relief. His face was maddeningly peaceful, and Aoi wanted to claw his eyes out from behind those untroubled lids. She wanted to ruffle Sakura’s hair as she and Tokiomi held her between them, just like they used to. But she didn’t, and she couldn’t, so Aoi went to the kitchen seeking the company of  the man who had replaced her daughter in her home, and more recently, her husband in her fantasies.</p><p>When Gilgamesh invited her to bed, Aoi accepted. They didn’t make love in a bed, because all of them were taken (except for the empty one in Rin’s room, but Aoi wasn’t doing this so she could think about that). They didn’t make love, period, because neither of them cared about the romantic kind of love anymore, if they ever had. It had only caused them pain, and neither of them were doing this for pain (at least, not their own). Aoi let herself forget for a few moments (hours, nights), because Gilgamesh’s hands were good enough to make her forget, and because Gilgamesh’s jaw didn’t scratch her skin as he trailed kisses down her body, and because moaning in Gilgamesh’s arms was the next best thing to laughing in Tokiomi’s.</p><p>During one of their trysts, Aoi spotted a hickey on Gilgamesh’s abdomen. She knew she hadn’t been the one to leave it there and wondered if he’d performed mana transfer with Tokiomi. The image of the two of them entangled together flashed through her mind, and she wasn’t sure if she was jealous of her husband or his Servant. Maybe the mark was given to Gilgamesh by someone he’d seduced during those evenings when he’d leave the house. Still, Aoi ramped up her enthusiasm that night, leaving her own claims on Gilgamesh’s pectorals, neck, and thighs. He patted her head encouragingly and chuckled at her determination, despite the fact that he could heal the marks away whenever he wished. </p><p>(The previous day, Gilgamesh was sprawled out on the same couch, a distant yet curious Kirei kneeling on the floor at his command. Gilgamesh had laughed then too, because the priest lacked finesse, and it was going to be such fun to watch him learn.)</p><p>Aoi’s hands trembled as she did Rin’s twin tails in the morning, but Rin didn’t notice. She was too busy watching Gilgamesh watch Kirei, who watched Father, who couldn’t seem to focus on anything or anyone nowadays. Rin filled her mind with knowledge of magic, the war, and the people around her. Knowledge was power, and power was the Tohsaka way. There was no room for worry or grief. If Father thought about Sakura during those times when his eyes would go blank and he’d stare off into the distance, he’d never admit it.</p><p>When Aoi’s eyes would go blank, she’d think of Gilgamesh on top of her, underneath her. A part of her hoped Tokiomi would be able to see her thoughts just by looking at her face. He never looked, though. </p><p>Kirei’s stare was always blank.</p><p>Assassin died, and Aoi didn’t notice until she overheard Tokiomi discussing strategy with Kirei. They had no one to acknowledge their passing, so Aoi mourned them, because they’d both been left behind in this war and in this house. </p><p>She and Gilgamesh has sex one last time on the couch. “Show me the Gate of Babylon,” Aoi said after they’d both had their fill of pleasure. </p><p>“You dare command a King to show you his treasury? I could summon a sword and strike it through your naked chest.” </p><p>“You won’t, though.” When he didn’t respond, Aoi closed her eyes and rested against Gilgamesh’s shoulder. She was startled back to wakefulness by the sound of liquid tinkling against glass.</p><p>A golden disc warped the air above the table. From it, Gilgamesh had pulled a pitcher of wine and two glasses. He handed one to Aoi and took the other in hand. “To your good health, Aoi,” he toasted, clinking his glass against hers.</p><p>“And yours, Archer,” she echoed. A demigod had no need of health, and he was marked to die anyway, but that didn’t matter. They drank until their glasses were hollow, then Gilgamesh sent everything he’d summoned back through the portal. She longed to reach out into the Gate, but what she desired was not in Gilgamesh’s treasury. Not even he could recover what Aoi and Tokiomi had thrown away with their own bloody hands. </p><p>Gilgamesh wiped a tear from Aoi’s cheek. This time, it was a gesture of compassion. Her long hair and sincere kindness reminded him of someone he once knew. </p><p>Kariya was Tokiomi’s fatal mistake. With the object of his wicked fascination so close, Kirei couldn’t help but succumb to temptation. He and Gilgamesh watched Kariya wail over Aoi’s broken body. Kirei smiled hollowly, but it wasn’t for show, since he didn’t realize anyone was looking. When Gilgamesh trailed a hand suggestively, possessively, over Kirei’s neck, Kirei didn’t flinch away. </p><p>Kirei belonged to Gilgamesh, although their command seals would soon suggest the reverse was true. Everything and everyone belonged to Gilgamesh, but he didn’t think about how it might’ve bothered him that his possessions were treated so cruelly. He didn’t think of Aoi, or how the feeling of her hair between his fingers reminded him of someone else. He didn’t think about how Kirei wasn’t the first person who kissed Gilgamesh like he wasn’t impressed by him (Kirei wasn’t impressed by anything). If he thought about how Enkidu would’ve convinced him to spirit Sakura away from her deplorable new “family”, he’d never admit it.</p><p>Tokiomi died with his pawn’s knife in his back, just like Gilgamesh had predicted. Just like Gilgamesh had orchestrated. Aoi was not able to mourn him. Rin would mourn them both, but not yet, since there was no room for grief in a war. Sakura would not mourn.</p><p>Gilgamesh spent the next decade indulging yet feeling no joy. He’d fall asleep by Kirei’s side and he wouldn’t think of Tokiomi, or Aoi, or Enkidu. Somehow, they managed to get out of bed every morning. Maybe it was only because they couldn’t stand to lie there next to one another. </p><p>When Sakura killed him, Gilgamesh did think of Aoi. Her parents would be so proud if they could see her. Proud, horrified, and ashamed of what they let her become. Enkidu would be so disappointed, and that might’ve made Gilgamesh sad, but Kirei’s laughter was ringing in his ears, so Gilgamesh laughed too until it didn’t matter anymore.</p><p>Not that any of it ever did.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I finally wrote my own fic after over two years in this fandom. Now my emo thoughts about Kirei (and co.) are public and not the sole burden of my poor friend, you know who you are.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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